Apostle's Interpretation of the Old Testament

APOSTLES’ INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (Hermaneutics) is
Lesson 3 of my Apostles Theological Seminary course, AM350-Prophetic
Models For An Apostolic Reformation. This is a strategic study of the
great reformations of the Kingdom of God and Old Covenant Israel under
Joshua, King David, Ezra and Nehemiah and the fulfillment of the
typology of these reformations by Jesus and His Apostles in the first
century.

Special emphasis is given to what needs to be restored today in order
to genuinely reform Messiah’s Kingdom and New Covenant Israel. The
practical goal of the course is to stimulate dialog and discover valid
apostolic strategies for a true reformation of the Church and the
nations in the 21st century.

Principles of Interpretation Followed By The Apostles

Although this is not a course in hermaneutics or principles of
interpretation of the Scriptures per se, it is necessary to discuss the
principles of interpretation followed by the Apostles of the Lamb and
the first Ascension-gift Apostles. Principles that I will attempt to
faithfully follow in this course.

1. It is important to remember that the Apostles of the Lamb and
almost all of the ascension gift apostles mentioned by name in the New
Testament Canon were of Jewish descent.

2. To them the scriptures consisted of the Old Testament writings.
During the forty days after his resurrection Luke tells us that Jesus
appeared to the disciples (the apostles) and opened the Scriptures and
explained the mysteries of Christ and His Kingdom from these Old
Testament writings. The original apostles understood the Holy
Scriptures to be the Old Testament Canon comprised of Moses, the Psalms
and the Prophets. (See Luke 24:27, 44, 45 and Acts 1: 3.)

(Before the first century the Holy Scriptures had been translated
into the Greek language by Jewish translators and circulated throughout
the Greco-Roman world in a Greek version that came to be known as the
Septuagint. The Septuagint was in fact the Bible of the early Church
and the Old Testament Scripture quotations in the Greek New Testament
are from the Greek Septuagint.)

3. Among these Old Testament Scriptures were the covenant promises
made to the fathers of Israel, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David.
The Apostles believed the promises made to the fathers culminated in
the promise made to David, and that they were fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus (in His resurrection, ascension, enthronement, and the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit) and in His Church, the true Israel of promise. (See
Acts 2:22-36 and 13:32-34.)

4. The ancient prophets of Israel and especially David, had
amplified and clarified these covenant promises, even foretelling the
time of their fulfillment in Christ and His Church during the days of
the Roman Empire in the first century. (See Daniel 2, 7, 9.) The
prophets called the fulfillment of the covenant promises, Messiah’s
Day, the day of Messiah’s administration of the Kingdom of God. The
first apostles understood that Messiah’s Day began with Christ’s
Resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of the promised Holy
Spirit, and fully dawned with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD as
the Kingdom was taken from natural Israel and given to the saints, the
Israel born of the Spirit. (See Deuteronomy 32, Daniel 7 and 9, Matthew
21, 22, and 24, Romans 9-11, Hebrews 10: 9 and 12: 28, The Revelation
of John Chapter 18 and 19.)

5. Christ’s Kingdom, the New Covenant, and the New Israel (the
Lord’s Church) were all pictured, foreshadowed or typified in the Law
of Moses (the Tabernacle, the Levitical Priesthood and Sacrifices, the
Feasts of Israel, as well as Israel’s history. ( See Hebrews 8:5 and
9:8-10, 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 11.)

6. In summary, the Apostles of the Lamb and the first ascension gift
apostles, like Paul and Barnabas, understood that the Old Testament
Scriptures (i.e. the promises to the fathers, the message of the
prophets concerning the inauguration of Messiah’s Day, and the typical
message of the shadows and types concerning the reality or substance of
God’s Kingdom purpose which is Christ and His Church) to have all been
fulfilled by the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by
the Romans in 70 AD. The Apostles understood this fulfillment or
Messiah’s Day to be the the time of the Lord’s reformation of the Old
Covenant, Old Covenant Israel (Hebrews 9:8-10) and of the Kingdom of
God. They understood Messiah’s Day to be the time for the restoration
of all things to begin under Messiah’s administration and through His
Church! This restoration would continue until all things had been
restored and the perfected Kingdom handed back to God the Father.

7. The failure to understand the New Testament realities outlined
above and the Apostles’ interpretation of the Old Testament has
ultimately resulted in the departure from the faith that the Lord Jesus
Himself entrusted to the first Apostles (Acts 1:1-3) and through them
to the saints. The failure to understand and follow the approach of the
Apostles has lead to many distortions in the interpretation of the Old
Testament Scriptures and to the widespread confusion and division that
has marked the sad history of the Church even up to the present. From
Irenaeus in the 2nd century, to Origen with his the allegorical
approach to the Old Testament (as well as many others among the early
church fathers), to cessationist theories and conjectures (apostles
have ceased, miracles have ceased, the gifts of the Spirit have
ceased), to postponement distortions of the 19th century, all the way
to the “manifest sons” or “manchild” errors of today, the tragic
failure to understand and follow the apostles’ interpretation of the
Old Testament has created havoc in Christian doctrine, theology, and in
the functional or structural unity of the Lord’s Church. Hence the need
for restoration of the foundations laid by the original apostles and a
reformation of the Church.

8. This restoration and the resulting reformation of the Church must
be based upon a valid and complete recovery of the Apostles’
understanding and approach to the Old Testament Scriptures. Sadly, too
many today have come to believe in multiple fulfillment of Old
Testament prophesies, causing them to not only misinterpret the
Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, but also to distort or even
undermine the faith of the saints. Others, mistakenly find a shadow or
type in almost every part of the Old Testament, and therefore do not
understand that Messiah’s day has fully dawned and the reformation
foretold by the prophets and foreshadowed in the Old Testament pictures
and types fulfilled.

9. In this course we will follow the interpretation of the Apostles
of the New Testament Canon, that the promises, the prophets, and the
shadows and types have been all been fulfilled in Christ and His
Church. We are not looking for something new, but the revival,
restoration or recovery, and the reformation of what has already been
established by the Lord in the first century. We are not looking for a
“manchild company,” as the manifest sons prophets mistakenly declare,
but rather for the full grown man, the saints, to grow up and fill all
things as the Apostle Paul declared in Ephesians 4:8-16. We are not
looking for a new kind of apostolic movement or a Christianity that has
never existed before, but for a return to the original, the restoration
of the foundations laid by the original apostles, so that we can go
forward upon the basis of that foundation to possess the Kingdom,
cities and nations, and fill the earth with God’s glory!

10. Thus we will look at the great reformations of Old Covenant
Israel, first under Joshua, then David and finally under Ezra and
Nehemiah, understanding fully that the reality typified has already
been fulfilled in the substantial reformation of the Old Covenant and
the Nation of Israel, by the establishment of the New Covenant and the
New Covenant Israel, by the Lord Jesus and His apostles of the first
century. But we further understand that through the succeeding
centuries there has been apostasy and distortion, and the foundations
of that reformation have been lost. Thus we will look at these great
reformations from an apostolic and prophetic standpoint to rediscover
the essential principles and apply them to the revival, restoration,
and reformation of the Lord’s Church and Kingdom today!

If you are interested in enrolling in AM 350 Prophetic Models For An Apostolic Reformation click on Current Courses.

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